Abstinence?
For nearly as long as many of us can remember, sex education in schools has been based around the idea of abstinence. Some of these merely offer abstinence as an ideal (‘well, you shouldn’t have sex, but if you’re going to anyway…’) but the least helpful are the abstinence-only programs, beloved by conservative politicians and religious leaders.
In addition to being patently unrealistic and spreading a damaging sense of shame about sex, such programs are blatantly biased toward heterosexuals (‘no sex until marriage’ means even less when you’re someone who is prevented from marrying!). Some of the worst programs actually scapegoat homosexuality by only ever mentioning it when discussing disease and promiscuity. So you may be taking a useless class, or one that portrays you as some sort of monster or deviant…good choices.
This is more than the usual ‘sins of omission’ found in the average sex ed program, this is a semi-subtle and dangerously insidious campaign to erase even the minor advances that the gay, lesbian, and transgendered community have achieved over the last several decades.
Okay, so this is a brief break in the conversation to mention the wonders of online slots. They’re wonderful, really. Now back to our regularly-scheduled program…
Abstinence is a valid personal choice, don’t get me wrong (Morrissey doesn’t seem any the worse for it), but like most easy answers, it ignores the complexity of real life in favor of a narrow, subjective ideal. For every study that says celibate kids are more likely to avoid sexually-transmitted diseases and premature pregnancies, there’s another that finds little or no effect (the latest report claims that kids taught abstinence may delay sexual activity by an average of at most one year. From my experience, that would probably be the year separating high school and college…).
And another little intrusion, before we wrap up. This time, I’ll be trumpeting the glories of online casino USA. Hallelujah. So where were we? Oh yes…
Those of us who grew up in comparatively sophisticated communities may not be able to truly understand how horrible it can be to try to come to terms with your sexuality in the midst of an environment which encourages repression and denial. For now, the only real answer may be to encourage kids to be perceptive enough to separate truth from propaganda…and give them the support and courage to be strong enough to maintain themselves, even when surrounded by seemingly overwhelming efforts to force them to be someone else.